Muslim Perceptions and Receptions of the Bible: Texts and Studies
Synopsis
The articles brought together in this volume deal with Muslim perceptions and uses of the Bible in its wider sense, including the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament as well as the New Testament, albeit with an emphasis on the former scripture. While Muslims consider the earlier revelations to the People of the Book to have been altered to some extent by the Jews and the Christians and abrogated by the Qurʾān, God's final dispensation to humankind, the Bible is at the same time venerated in view of its divine origin, and questioning this divine origin is tantamount to unbelief. Muslim scholars approached and used the Bible for a variety of purposes and in different ways. Thus Muslim historians regularly relied on biblical materials as their primary source for the pre-Islamic period when discussing the creation as well as the history of the Israelites and the prophets preceding Muḥammad. Authors seeking to polemicize against Jews and Christians were primarily interested in the presumed biblical annunciations of Muḥammad and his religion and / or in perceived contradictions and cases of internal abrogation in the Bible. These various concerns resulted from and had an impact on the ways in which Muslim authors accessed the scriptures.
Reviews:
"This collection … shows that Adang’s and Schmidtke’s work is still fresh and crucial for the ongoing conversation on Jewish–Muslim relations. The first three chapters are surveys that provide the reader with sufficient background material on the ‘Torah’ in the Qur’an and early traditional Muslim views of the ‘corruption’ (taḥrīf) of the Hebrew Bible and of Judaism itself. These chapters would offer graduate students a sound guide for entry into this field. An extensive and impressive bibliography of all the works previously listed in the individual articles has been assembled with both primary and secondary sources, providing researchers with an excellent resource to begin or continue their own work in this field."—David D. Grafton, Hartford International University, in Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations 33:2, 193–195; DOI: 10.1080/09596410.2022.2038957.
Chapters
-
Table of Contents
-
Torah
-
Medieval Muslim Polemics against the Jewish Scriptures
-
Muslim-Jewish Polemics
-
The Muslim Reception of Biblical Materials: Ibn Qutayba and His Aʿlām al-Nubuwwa
-
Some Hitherto Neglected Biblical Material in the Work of Ibn Ḥazm
-
A Jewish Reply to Ibn Ḥazm: Solomon b. Adret’s Polemic against Islam
-
Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Baṣrī and His Transmission of Biblical Materials from Kitāb al-Dīn wa-l-Dawla by Ibn Rabban al-ṬabarīThe Evidence from Faḫr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s Mafātīḥ al-Ġayb
-
Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Baṣrī on the Torah and Its Abrogation
-
The Muslim Reception of the BibleAl-Māwardī and His Kitāb Aʿlām al-Nubuwwa
-
A Fourth/Tenth Century Tunisian Muftī on the Sanctity of the Torah of Moses
-
The Chronology of the Israelites according to Ḥamza al-Iṣfahānī
-
A Rare Case of Biblical “Testimonies” to the Prophet Muḥammad in Muʿtazilī LiteratureQuotations from Ibn Rabban al-Ṭabarī’s Kitāb al-Dīn wa-l-Dawla in Abu l-Ḥusayn al-Baṣrī’s Ġurar al-Adilla, as Preserved in a Work by al-Ḥimmaṣī al-Rāzī
-
Muʿtazilī Discussions of the Abrogation of the TorahIbn Ḫallād (Fourth/ Tenth Century) and His Commentators
-
Biblical Predictions of the Prophet Muḥammad among the Zaydīs of Iran
-
Biblical Predictions of the Prophet Muḥammad among the Zaydīs of Yemen (Sixth/Twelfth and Seventh/Thirteenth Centuries)
-
An Arabic Translation of the Pentateuch in the Library of the Twelver Šīʿī Scholar Raḍī al-Dīn ʿAlī b. Mūsā Ibn Ṭāwūs (d. 664/1266)
-
The Rightly Guiding Epistle (al-Risāla al-Hādiya) by ʿAbd al-Salām al-Muhtadī al-MuḥammadīA Critical Edition
-
Guided to Islam by the TorahThe Risāla al-Hādiya by ʿAbd al-Salām al-Muhtadī al-Muḥammadī
-
Aḥmad b. Muṣṭafā Ṭāškubrīzāde’s (d. 968/1561) Polemical Tract against Judaism
-
A Polemic against Judaism by a Convert to Islam from the Ottoman PeriodRisālat Ilzām al-Yahūd fīmā zaʿamū fī l-Tawrāt min qibal ʿilm al-kalām
-
Epistle Forcing the Jews [to Admit Their Error] with Regard to What They Contend about the Torah, by Dialectic Reasoning (Risālat ilzām al-yahūd fīmā zaʿamū fī l-tawrāt min qibal ʿilm al-kalām) by al-Salām ʿAbd al-ʿAllāmA Critical Edition
-
Bibliography (included with each chapter)
-
Indexes
